In the 1950s K.H. Gaarlandt, mayor of Emmen, brought a number of innovative architects and urban planners to his village, to supervise its development and expansion. The motto of this project was: ‘Emmen shall be a town, ok, as long as it stays a village!’ The arrival of the Algemene Kunstzijde Unie (AKU, now Akzo Nobel) synthetic thread factory allowed this village in the northern province of Drenthe to rapidly evolve into a regional centre of industry with new housing estates and community facilities…